general driving - use of advance/retard

[geoff]

Not having grown up in that era (my first car was a mini),  I have no experience of every day use of the advance/retard facility on my Dyna X.
Would one normally use it all the time for every day driving - like when starting the car, or ascending hills?.  I usually leave it in the '0' position and perhaps advance it a bit if going up a long incline.
what do others do?

[Martin Mc]

Hi Geoff,
Does it not advise in the handbook?
Anyway, this from a Lagonda site but I suspect there would be no automatic advance on it
"Proceed as follows: Having started the engine retarded, you should then advance the ignition up until the engine runs smoothly ( you will hear the revs pick up) and then when you drive off, once underway, continue to advance the ignition until the engine just starts to "pink" or "knock" and then retard the ignition back until the pinking just disappears, the ignition will then be in it's optimum setting for smooth running and maximum power.
You may need to retard the ignition slightly when climbing a hill and then advance up again when on the level.
When you have driven the car a few times you should get to know roughly where the correct position is on the quadrant."



I had a 1954  Renault Frégate which had a manual advance/retard cable, but also a fully automatic advance and vacuum unit in the distributor! I just set the ignition timing by the distributor in the normal way and never touched the control except once when it pinked on French petrol!
Martin

[iwema]

Hi Geoff,
If you have to retard at full load your basic timing is over advanced.
When over-advancing the engine can start pinking.
The Panhard engines can start pinking whit a static advancement of 9 teeth (30 degr.) when running under full load on a hot summers day .
Pinking will give engine damage!
Many Panhard  engines have only a vacuum advance, no centrifugal advance.
With centrifugal advance  you get a more proper advancement at low and high revs.
The distributor  with  centrifugal advance is the better option. The advance mechanism  can give also more total advancement.

For some engines, like the Tigre, the Panhard  manual give a static advancement  of 6 up to 9 teeth (20 up to 30 degr.). 
Unfortunately  the manual  does not  tell you what the difference in driving capabilities is.
If you set the static advancement on 20 degr.; the engine is smother and has more power at low revs. and less power at high revs.
If you set the static advancement on 30 degr.; the engine will give more performance at high revs but less drivability and smoothness  at low revs.
For a better performance over the total rev. range you can install a distributor  with centrifugal advance.
If you want go for the best performance , drivability and best mileage  an high quality electronic ignition system can give the best performance at low and high revs.

If you set the static advancement at 20 degr. , the electronic ignition can bring the advancement  up to 30 degr. or if desired up to 35 degr. at high rev.
Not all electronic ignition systems can work in conjunction with the Panhard engines.
The SkyFire2 ignition is suitable for the Panhard engines.
They are capable of adjusting the  centrifugal- and vacuum advance.

More information on the website of the manufacturer: https://www.skyfireignition.nl/pages/what-is-it/

Some YouTube movies of a Panhard 24CT with a SkyFyre2 ignition installed:

This movie shows is a cold start, without choke and without additional throttle.
https://youtu.be/6jHQmK5YNg4 

This 2 cylinder engine will run perfectly. This engine is running at less than 0.9% CO and 282 ppm HC.
https://youtu.be/FMukTReO2r8

http://www.panhardclub.com/forum/showthr...ht=skyfire

[geoff]

thanks all for your replys.
My car - an X86 - has neither centrifugal nor vacuum advance and to be honest, I cannot detect any change in driving with the manual control on full advance or full retard.

[iwema]

To show you the difference between a standard ignition spark and  spark from a SkyFire ignition see: https://youtu.be/t4Oz-8jTiqc
The first spark is produced by a standard 1995 Range Rover 3.9L ignition system.
The air gap is only 12.5mm.
The color of the park is blue.
The second produses up to 500% more energy.
The air gap is raised from 12.5mm to 20.0mm.
The color of the spark is now white.

For more informtion go to: www.SkyFireIgnition.com